Ship of Fools: Boring

Thread: Boring Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

The Boring Conference 2012, "devoted to mundane matters", has apparently been a sellout. I haven't found further information on what topics they'll be talking about this year, but am sure we could probably suggest a few. You might like to have a look at last year's to give you an idea.

Meanwhile, here are Britain's most boring days out.*

So - any suggestions? Places you've been to? Collections you've seen? First-hand experiences of in-depth boredom? Anything else?

* Some of the photos are actually quite interesting.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

I'm surprised they didn't mention Creamtealand's greatest attraction, Barometer World. After all what else is there to do when it never stops raining?

And don't just think it's a summer-only tourist attraction, you can even go there to buy your Barometer Christmas Cards!

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

One boring place to visit is Boring, Oregon. They have recently formed an association with the town of Dull in Scotland.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Are you interested in colour? then visit Bradford's Colour Museum. Not as bad as it sounds.

One hat museum would be enough for one country, but no. You could do a tour of hat museums. Stockport, Luton and London.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

You may jest, Balaam, but after you've been to the Hat Museum, try the Shoe Museum in Northampton. I did, and didn't find it at all boring, but then I am a bit of a shoe fetishist ... [Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

Prior to the quakes there was a Museum of Cricket in Christchurch. Not all the damage was a cause for regret.

Huia [Two face]

[ 24. November 2012, 07:11: Message edited by: Huia ]

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

One nearby town boasts the largest collection of Night Light Teapots. The Teapot Museum, it seems, is a tourist destination [Confused]

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

Norwich has a Mustard Museum

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

And after visiting the mustard museum, it's only a short drive over to Little Snoring. The Wikipedia article on the village is very short, presumably because not much happens there while everyone is asleep....

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

I suppose it depends on your interests. Personally, I found the helicopter museum, just outside Weston Super Mare, incredibly boring - once you've seen one, you've seen them all - but Darlenwr and Lord P found it fascinating. Didn't help that the day we ended up there was cold and miserable, and the main part of the museum was unheated. The cafe wasn't very good either.

Posted by Gamaliel (# 812) on :

No-one's mentioned the legendary Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria.

I HAD to visit it.

It gets a mention in a Little Britain sketch (skit to our US readers) - not that this is any recommendation.

Is it boring?

No, I found it quite interesting. Perhaps I ought to end it all now ...

[Eek!]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I was once sent on a course for Word, which began with an explanation of what an icon was and why you had to click on it (using the correct button on your mouse to do so). After about 5 minutes we got into the program and were introduced to The Scrollbar And What It Does.

As I'd been using the program already for about 3 years (but had not had formal training so a course was deemed mandatory) I can't say I was utterly gripped by this.

It was, however, more interesting than a teach-yourself-programming coursebook on Fortran that I once misguidedly borrowed from the library and took back unread.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Ah, the mandatory training courses. A rich seam of Kill Me Now tedium. Mind you, the Equality and Diversity ones were usually enlivened by a few attendees (usually from Security) who couldn't see you why it was wrong to call people crips/loonies/poofters/wogs etc if that's what they were.

The one that really obliterated the will to live was undoubtedly the week trapped on an industrial estate learning about PRINCE2.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

I've been to at least three of those - the Pencil Museum, the Dog Collar Museum (which the Torygraph has probably confused a few people by not mentioning it's in the little village of Leeds in Kent, not the one in Yorkshire), and the Verdant Works, and would love to go to at least two more - especially the Bakelite Museum.

Sadly they couldn't get funding for the museum of death in Birmingham...

AG

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
the Dog Collar Museum (which the Torygraph has probably confused a few people by not mentioning it's in the little village of Leeds in Kent, not the one in Yorkshire),
AG

Ah, thanks, Sandemaniac. I have visited that one, but was thinking there must be two when I saw the OP.

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

I wonder if the article was written off the back off someone reading the wonderfully-titled travel book Bollocks to Alton Towers. The Pencil Museum receives a mention, as does the British Lawnmower Museum. It makes some decidedly odd places sound quite enticing (a garden full of themed gnomes ??)

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Prior to the quakes there was a Museum of Cricket in Christchurch. Not all the damage was a cause for regret.

Huia

Why was I not told? [Waterworks]

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Ah, the mandatory training courses. A rich seam of Kill Me Now tedium. Mind you, the Equality and Diversity ones were usually enlivened by a few attendees (usually from Security) who couldn't see you why it was wrong to call people crips/loonies/poofters/wogs etc if that's what they were.

The one that really obliterated the will to live was undoubtedly the week trapped on an industrial estate learning about PRINCE2.

Wait until you get ITIL. You'll look back on PRINCE with nostalgia.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Wait until you get ITIL. You'll look back on PRINCE with nostalgia.

If there is one thing reconciling me to age and the only end of age it is that I never have to go on another training course.

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kitten:
Norwich has a Mustard Museum

I've been there.

Still upset I didn't go to Guernsey's telephone museum when I was over there or Auntie Doris' wedding for it has now closed down and I won't get another chance. Did go to the tomato museum though.

[ 24. November 2012, 20:56: Message edited by: Yangtze ]

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
I wonder if the article was written off the back off someone reading the wonderfully-titled travel book Bollocks to Alton Towers.

There is a sequel,
Far From the Sodding Crowd, which I bought at llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (also in "Bollocks...") solely for the picture of my student hang-out, dear old Hernia Bay, on the front cover.

We've been to quite a few in both books (including ringing at Imber), and have been known to do swift u-turns when strange brown signs have been spotted!

Perhaps the most deep-down boring place we've been was the Grain earth house at Kirkwall. It's a hole in the ground. We were fascinated by it (no, really!).

AG

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

When you have finished at Gnome World, you could come and visit Pixieland (on Dartmoor), where you will get to know all these fascinating creatures. I'm thinking of taking Pyx_e there for his next significant birthday, but don't breathe a word! [Biased]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Repulsive, but not actually boring, sorry. Most of these museums sound quite interestingly quirky.

How about Sunday mornings wasted on the most boring sermon ever, or afternoons spent hanging round a station platform while the person you were with scribbled serial numbers from passing freight trains into a notebook? Losing the will to live in a meeting, or on one of those long car journeys where the small child in the back sings the same phrase over and over again, for three hours? Time spent sitting in a plane going nowhere, stuck on the runway? Looking through a collection of photos of traffic cones? There are nadirs of boredom yet unplumbed.

Speaking of which, I once made the mistake of politely asking someone whether she had plans for the Easter holidays, and was treated to a long explanation of exactly how she intended to remove and replace the bath. There are some questions you immediately regret asking.

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
my student hang-out, dear old Hernia Bay, on the front cover.

My teenage hangout. Many an angst ridden hour spent fending off boredom at the roller rink on what remained of the pier there.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Hanging around on the station platform while someone scribbled down numbers wouldn't be too bad if I could have a camera please, lots of material to try photographing. However, being given a blow by blow account of the trains seen and carriages counted heads into boring territory.

The most boring experience was being told, for 2 hours, what needed doing on a voluntary secretarial post. He'd already sent me all the information by e-mail. He really, really didn't need to go through it all page by page. Open door, throw files in and run would have done it.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
... trapped on an industrial estate learning about PRINCE2.

Is that a film sequel or a new member of the Royal Family? [Big Grin]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by piglet:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
... trapped on an industrial estate learning about PRINCE2.
Is that a film sequel or a new member of the Royal Family?

I thought is was Michael Jackson's younger son.
[Biased]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by piglet:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
... trapped on an industrial estate learning about PRINCE2.
Is that a film sequel or a new member of the Royal Family?

...creep home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
When you have finished at Gnome World, you could come and visit Pixieland (on Dartmoor), where you will get to know all these fascinating creatures. I'm thinking of taking Pyx_e there for his next significant birthday, but don't breathe a word!

Haha! We used to drive past pixieland every year on our way to Hexworthy on holiday. Every year we would say 'pleeeease can we go to pixieland?', and there would be a resounding 'no!' from the front of the car. A couple of years ago, I took my kids down there on holiday and it was like a replay - they saw it, wanted to go, and we in the front of the car absolutely refused.

My sister relented and took one of her girls (now in her 20s) a while back. It is, apparently, completely and utterly bonkers. The woman who runs it gives you a guided tour and you have to wear gnome hats at all times.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:

My teenage hangout. Many an angst ridden hour spent fending off boredom at the roller rink on what remained of the pier there. [/QUOTE]

You might have been skating over my head - I spent a lot of time seeing what the sea had washed up under the pier, and I even managed to get a fisherman to take me out to the old pier head. Both activities that I can see many people describing as "Boring".

Incidentally, birdie, your sig perfectly sums up your last post!

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

One of those Torygraph pictures has the accompanying and presumably sarcastic text:

quote:
The perfect day out for restless children

Indeed. I'll be delighted if restless children young and old feck off to some other source of instant gratification and leave me to enjoy these places in peace.

I've visited several of the places in 'Bollocks to Alton Towers'; Southport lawnmower museum is listed in the link from the OP, and also Keith Harding's world of mechanical music was a particular favourite. Thanks for the heads-up on a sequel - something for the wife to add to my Christmas list, along with perhaps some ebay searching on my behalf for a few old plugs.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Then, of course, there is the re-enactment of the 1454 Pixies' Revenge, where you can see whether dreadful harm comes to the Bellringers, or whether the Pixies are routed and driven off. We really know how to create mayhem in Creamtealand.

If all that is too much for you, I was going to direct you to the Great Torrington Glove Musuem, but unfortunately it has closed. The gloves are really off now.

Posted by Sighthound (# 15185) on :

I think 'boring' is very much an individual thing. When I worked in an office I was often bored, and I frequently (almost invariably) get bored at parties. But give me a medieval chronicle to read and I am lost in delight.

A lot of people nowadays have the attention span of a gnat, and no interest in anything except maybe the latest IT gadget or 'cool' fad. It's almost fashionable to be bored.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

No. 15, the Verdant Works, Dundee, seems a little unfair, given it has won awards.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
No. 15, the Verdant Works, Dundee, seems a little unfair, given it has won awards.

Given that the mill owners were all Liberals, and the workers didn't matter, no wonder the Torygraph gets up its arse about it. A fair number of my crowd worked in the jute mills, this is my equivalent of the stately homes you imagine your readers' ancestors all spent their time in.

AG

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

How come most of the boring places are in the UK?

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
How come most of the boring places are in the UK?

OTOH, Ontario not only has the Canadian Canoe Museum, but the world's largest apple-shaped structure (at Colborne). We also stayed somewhere which had a piece of the world's largest ever cheese. Just a piece, so you did have to use a little imagination in order to be adequately impressed.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
How come most of the boring places are in the UK?

We are terribly good at it. We have a particular talent for making crap tourist "attractions" out of fuck all. We do this by tempting people into places that are indeed beautiful but have very little to actually do except walk, cycle, climb, scramble, canoe etc. - enough, one might think, to fill any fortnight's visit, and would be, were it not for the fact that said places are also extremely rainy and therefore only the keenest outdoorsy types actually want to do the above activities much of the time. Moreover, we somehow tempt people to these places who have no interest in the above activities! Hence they are full of cagouled families wandering around in the rain so desperate that they'll fool for any crappy two-bit "museum" containing two nondescript pieces of agricultural equipment and a relief map of the area showing you what the mountains you can't see because of the mist and rain don't quite look like.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:

quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Prior to the quakes there was a Museum of Cricket in Christchurch. Not all the damage was a cause for regret.

Huia
Why was I not told?

Sorry Pete, but I think it was one of the buildings taken out by the Sept 2010 quake. It was in an area of very unstable ground.

Posted by Mullygrub (# 9113) on :

Australia is home to a comedic array of Big Things keep it clean, kids), not the least of which are the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple (those Queenslanders), and the Giant Earthworm, and many of which host fascinating museums for the seriously committed.

ETA: fricking URL demons. Hopefully this one works.

[Tamed URL demon with tinyurl.
jj- helpful host]

[ 27. November 2012, 02:25: Message edited by: jedijudy ]

Posted by Mullygrub (# 9113) on :

Nup. Gah. Sorry [Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Not seeing a problem with the links Mullygrub.

You can find postcards of the big banana and pineapple at The Big Apple mentioned above. I think they're all part of The World Federation of Pointless Fruit-shaped Structures.

Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:

Incidentally, birdie, your sig perfectly sums up your last post!

Quite.

Actually, reading back, it strikes me as a perfect shipmeet venue.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
How come most of the boring places are in the UK?
We are terribly good at it. We have a particular talent for making crap tourist "attractions" out of fuck all. We do this by tempting people into places that are indeed beautiful but have very little to actually do except walk, cycle, climb, scramble, canoe etc. - enough, one might think, to fill any fortnight's visit, and would be, were it not for the fact that said places are also extremely rainy and therefore only the keenest outdoorsy types actually want to do the above activities much of the time. Moreover, we somehow tempt people to these places who have no interest in the above activities! Hence they are full of cagouled families wandering around in the rain so desperate that they'll fool for any crappy two-bit "museum" containing two nondescript pieces of agricultural equipment and a relief map of the area showing you what the mountains you can't see because of the mist and rain don't quite look like.

Be fair Karl, those cheapskate tourist attractions only exist because there are so many cheapskates who would rather pay £5 a time for two crap days out than £10 for one good day out. We British have low expectations and our "Tourist Attractions", like the "Ideal Gifts" you see at this this time of year, are testaments to that.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
How come most of the boring places are in the UK?
We are terribly good at it. We have a particular talent for making crap tourist "attractions" out of fuck all. We do this by tempting people into places that are indeed beautiful but have very little to actually do except walk, cycle, climb, scramble, canoe etc. - enough, one might think, to fill any fortnight's visit, and would be, were it not for the fact that said places are also extremely rainy and therefore only the keenest outdoorsy types actually want to do the above activities much of the time. Moreover, we somehow tempt people to these places who have no interest in the above activities! Hence they are full of cagouled families wandering around in the rain so desperate that they'll fool for any crappy two-bit "museum" containing two nondescript pieces of agricultural equipment and a relief map of the area showing you what the mountains you can't see because of the mist and rain don't quite look like.
Be fair Karl, those cheapskate tourist attractions only exist because there are so many cheapskates who would rather pay £5 a time for two crap days out than £10 for one good day out. We British have low expectations and our "Tourist Attractions", like the "Ideal Gifts" you see at this this time of year, are testaments to that.

I think what bothers me is the fact that most of these tourist attractions are closer to the £20 than the tenner or the fiver [Biased]

Posted by Mullygrub (# 9113) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Not seeing a problem with the links Mullygrub.

Thanks, Firenze, but it's not all Neat And Tidy like I prefer it to be.

Sigh.

Now, THAT would be an interesting* seminar: OCD-esque Behaviours in Context and Contemplation.

*BORING for the Normal People

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
I'm surprised they didn't mention Creamtealand's greatest attraction, Barometer World. After all what else is there to do when it never stops raining?

And don't just think it's a summer-only tourist attraction, you can even go there to buy your Barometer Christmas Cards!

Barometer World is quite the legend in our family! I come from a family of caravanners and my parents would always get leaflets/brochures from the most boring attractions possible from Creamtealand to pin up in their local pub back home in Coventry. We have several generations photographed in the boat outside the Witchcraft Museum* in Boscastle!

*not boring but sadly forbidden by my lapsed Catholic dad

Posted by beatmenace (# 16955) on :

quote:
Wait until you get ITIL. You'll look back on PRINCE with nostalgia.

I have done ITIL and I second the motion.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
How come most of the boring places are in the UK?
We are terribly good at it. We have a particular talent for making crap tourist "attractions" out of fuck all. We do this by tempting people into places that are indeed beautiful but have very little to actually do except walk, cycle, climb, scramble, canoe etc. - enough, one might think, to fill any fortnight's visit, and would be, were it not for the fact that said places are also extremely rainy and therefore only the keenest outdoorsy types actually want to do the above activities much of the time.

That sounds like the Land's End Experience.

The real Land's End experience is Land's End itself, not some poxy tourist attraction and shopping mall.

I am a fan of Doctor Who. But the Doctor Who exhibit at Land's End is in the wrong place. There's no reason why it could not be in Penzance, Or St.Ives. But not in a concrete monstrosity that ruins a very scenic place.

Yes Land's End is wet. Very wet. For the Atlantic winds that bring the rain it is the first place on the British mainland where they reach land.(Or for the pedantic, Cape Cornwall). The rain can be horizontal. Even Uphill. But it is this often violent weather that has shaped the land and made it what it is, not several thousand tons of Readymix.

In the end those who wish to see the real Land's end are disappointed because of the concrete. Those who see the adverts for the Land's End Experience and come are also disappointed that it isn't Alton Towers.

Everybody loses.

Posted by Alaric the Goth (# 511) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
I've been to at least three of those - the Pencil Museum, the Dog Collar Museum (which the Torygraph has probably confused a few people by not mentioning it's in the little village of Leeds in Kent, not the one in Yorkshire), and the Verdant Works, and would love to go to at least two more - especially the Bakelite Museum.

Sadly they couldn't get funding for the museum of death in Birmingham...
AG

I am so upset now! I looked through the pictures and saw that the Dog Collar Museum was in 'Leeds'. "Didn't know we had that in the city!" I thought. But apparently we don't. [Disappointed]

We always joke on weekends away to the Lake District that if the rain's too bad we'll go to the Pencil Museum. It is probably 'quite' good', but I've yet to go round it.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

The crap attractions do have an advantage for parents though. Before now we've threatened the kids that we'll take them to the Museum of Boring Broken Bits of Old Pots, which title I nicked straight from Viz. Their experience of what does exist is sufficient to make them believe such a place could be real.

[ 27. November 2012, 11:29: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

I've been to the dog collar museum [Smile]

I'd love to go to the Colour and Verdant museums as I do textile art, and I'm rather disappointed to have missed the Glove museum. I quite fancy the Bakelite one too, I'm sure my geek of a husband would be amenable to that. He once took the boys to a telephone museum in Milton Keynes and apparently the central Milton Keynes museum has a room full of lawn mowers.
Which reminds me, Bletchley Park, which is not a boring museum IMO, does have a room containing rows of 1980s home computers: zx81s, BBCs, Spectrums...

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Niagara Falls gets my nomination. It's as pointless as the Pencil Museum, and all it does is prove that water flows downhill, a fairly well known fact in scientific circles. It's surrounded by tatty predators that feed on the millions of tourists who are drawn to the place, and is in fact a dump, made worse by the casino. To get there, you either drive for hours on a fast and crowded highway through the most boring part of Canada or plough through downtown Buffalo, neither of which is an aesthetic delight. When we have visitors I always lie about how impossibly far away it is to drive there, but my dear wife withdraws her support in my time of need, and off we go again. I hate the place.

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

I have tried to explain my fascination for Grimes Graves but to everyone I have ever taken there it is just a ladder down into a hole in the ground. They just don't get "neolithic" I suppose.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
I have tried to explain my fascination for Grimes Graves but to everyone I have ever taken there it is just a ladder down into a hole in the ground. They just don't get "neolithic" I suppose.

I'd be interested. This picture though says a lot about British tourist attractions:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Grimes_Graves_Hut.jpg

Yes. Sit in the freezing drizzle with a plastic cup of plastic coffee (only guessing, but, you know...) at a damp picnic table. Don't forget your waterproofs.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

The Pencil Museum is indeed Quite Interesting.

Nobody's mentioned the Christmas fiasco (what was it called, Winter Wonderland or something) that operated in the New Forest a couple of years ago. It was so bad that the owners were taken to court and made to compensate the visitors, IIRC.

Albenga in northern Italy has its own Boring equivalent: an Olive Oil Museum. Which is quite touching in its own way but doesn't justify the couple of euros admission fee.

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
This picture though says a lot about British tourist attractions:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Grimes_Graves_Hut.jpg

Now they have deliberately taken that picture facing away from the really exciting field full of slight depressions in the ground...

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
I have tried to explain my fascination for Grimes Graves but to everyone I have ever taken there it is just a ladder down into a hole in the ground. They just don't get "neolithic" I suppose.

That's a pretty cool hole in the ground with a ladder, though, Bob. Even as a flint geek, though, I think the Great Orme Copper Mine out-cools it, and is genuinely fills-me with-awe awesome.

AG

Posted by WhyNotSmile (# 14126) on :

Near my parents' house (in Northern Ireland) is a group of islands called the Copelands. We'd always thought we must take one of the little boat trips out there, which are marketed in a nearby village. We'd been told that the main island, while small, is very scenic and has great bird life.

Some relatives were visiting from England, and this seemed the perfect opportunity. Us children (my sister and I, and the visitors' kids) were all aged around 10-14, so they figured we could spend a couple of hours seeing the sights and then come back for lunch.

So we booked it, got into the little boat, and were sailed out there and dropped off. This was at about 11am. As he sailed off again, the boatman looked back over his shoulder and said "Have a great day, I'll be back for you at about 4!".

The Copelands are lovely, but with the best will in the world, they do not hold 5 hours of entertainment for anyone, except the most avid birdwatcher. They are very rocky, so we couldn't really run around (and we were really a bit too old for running around to be 5 hours' worth of fun), we had no binoculars for bird-watching, and the island was littered with the carcasses of rabbits who'd died of maximatosis. In terms of food, we had half a packet of Polo mints.

In fairness, this was not so much the fault of the islands, as the adults for failing to ask how long we'd be left there.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

Williton in West Somerset has a Bakelite Museum. I quite often driven past but never felt tempted to visit. After all, if you're in Williton, recently badly flooded, it also has the West Somerset Railway passing through it, which is genuinely worth visiting.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Williton in West Somerset has a Bakelite Museum. I quite often driven past but never felt tempted to visit.

I found that reasonably interesting and quite nostalgic.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I'm rather fond of Bath but have never yet managed to get excited about this. And there is a lot of it. I mean, it's an ancient Roman central heating system that only an archaeologist with a thing about ancient central heating systems could love.

(And anyone posting a link to the National Museum of Radiators will be taken out and shot.)

Btw, to get away from museums and tourist attractions (too interesting), porridge should definitely be mentioned on this thread - the most boring food known.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

Bath is a working class town with a touristy bit in the middle.

The people amble along slowly so it is a nightmare.
Hate it.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
porridge should definitely be mentioned on this thread - the most boring food known.

You've never had grits.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:
Bath is a working class town with a touristy bit in the middle.

The people amble along slowly so it is a nightmare.
Hate it.

I've never equated working class people and ambling.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
porridge should definitely be mentioned on this thread - the most boring food known.
You've never had grits.

Is it anything like cream of wheat? Which I now remember was even duller than porridge.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

I never find porridge boring, especially when served with cream and honey. And I rather like Roman heating systems too, I've spent many an hour 'ambling' around those in Bath and Northumbria.
But I fancy visiting a Bakelite museum, so what do I know [Smile]

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

I'm reading Sandi Toksvig's 'Gladys' Reunited' at the moment, and she mentions grits, I'd never heard of them before but they sound awful.
I thought of this thread whilst reading last night as one of Sandi's hobbies is visiting truly awful museums and she recounts some of her visits in the US, such as a trip to a famous writer's house, which turns out not to have been her house at all as it had burned down...twice! And nothing in the current house actually ever belonged to her either.

Posted by Starbug (# 15917) on :

If you go to Paul McCartney's childhood home in Liverpool, hardly any of the furnishings belonged to the McCartney family. The resident guide will cheerfully tell you that the kitchen sink came from a house down the road and the living room wallpaper has the wrong pattern. John Lennon's house is much more authentic and therefore more interesting.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
porridge should definitely be mentioned on this thread - the most boring food known.
You've never had grits.
Is it anything like cream of wheat? Which I now remember was even duller than porridge.

No. No, no, no! Grits is heavenly! Comfort food to put a smile on a person's face! And if porridge is oatmeal, that's another yummy food!

Y'all must not have had it cooked right. [Biased]

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
porridge should definitely be mentioned on this thread - the most boring food known.
You've never had grits.

No it's got to be plain boiled rice....

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